Wealth Management
MAY 16, 2025
The move was accompanied by a set of FAQs on how to custody digital assets, and marked the latest step in the commissions effort to significantly reform its previous approach to cryptocurrencies.
Nerd's Eye View
MAY 16, 2025
Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" - this week's edition kicks off with the news that Republicans in the House of Representatives this week released their long-awaited tax plan to address the impending sunset of many measures in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The proposed legislation makes several aspects of TCJA 'permanent', including maintaining TCJA's tax brackets and the elevated estate tax exemption, while also introducing new potential tax-savings op
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Calculated Risk
MAY 16, 2025
Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: Housing Starts Increased to 1.361 million Annual Rate in April A brief excerpt: Total housing starts in April were at expectations and starts in February and March were revised up, combined. The third graph shows the month-to-month comparison for total starts between 2024 (blue) and 2025 (red). Total starts were down 1.7% in April compared to April 2024.
Wealth Management
MAY 16, 2025
Retirement plan advisors need to take the rising trend of ERISA forfeiture lawsuits seriously to protect their clients from potential legal risks.
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Automation generally supercharges any process and brings its value to the forefront. See how infusing automation such as ART (our month-end close solution), into your close can get you to the next level of closing. We will share a live demo of SkyStem's solution, ART and share the key elements of month-end close automation. Through ART, we'll take a look at: What month-end close automation entails Which process steps can and should be automated Benefits of achieving process automation, and Why i
Abnormal Returns
MAY 16, 2025
Companies Charter Communications ($CHTR) and Cox Communications are merging. (cnbc.com) Meta's ($META) Facebook and Instagram are increasingly scam-filled. (wsj.com) How big an additional opportunity is experiences for Airbnb ($ABNB)? (platformaeronaut.com) Apple Apple ($AAPL) made a strategic mistake. (spyglass.org) Apple ($AAPL) is never going to make iPhones in the U.S.
Wealth Management
MAY 16, 2025
The pros and cons of three ways high school students can earn college creditsdual enrollment, AP classes and IB classeshelping financial advisors guide clients in reducing future college expenses.
Financial Advisor Source brings together the best content for financial advisor professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
The Big Picture
MAY 16, 2025
This week, I speak with John Montgomery , CEO, Founder and Portfolio Manager of Bridgeway Capital Management. His responsibilities include the firms strategic direction, investment management and risk oversight, portfolio management, and mentoring. John holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering, a BA in Philosophy from Swarthmore College, and graduate degrees from MIT and Harvard Business School.
Advisor Perspectives
MAY 16, 2025
Consumer sentiment fell for a fifth straight month as ongoing economic uncertainty and inflation worries continue to drag down consumer attitudes. The Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index dropped to 50.8 in May, the second lowest reading on record.
Alpha Architect
MAY 16, 2025
Profitability subsumes all of the quality factor, explaining both the performance of the strategies the investment industry market and the factors that academics employnone of the quality factors generated significant positive alpha relative to profitability, the other Fama and French factors, and momentum. Profitability Retrospective: Key Takeaways for Investors was originally published at Alpha Architect.
Wealth Management
MAY 16, 2025
Mariner's independent advisor channel grows with the addition of two experienced financial advisors, Seattle-based Scott Hitchcock and Des Moines, Iowa-based Chad Tramp.
Speaker: Kim Beynon, CPA, CGMA, PMP
The most overlooked, yet most critical, element of transformation is preparing people for change. Automation and AI aren't just technical upgrades, they’re cultural shifts which can challenge identities. That’s why change management isn’t a side project—it’s the foundation. In finance, where precision and process rule, navigating change can feel especially disruptive.
A Wealth of Common Sense
MAY 16, 2025
I now do all my reading on a Kindle Paperwhite. You don’t have any weird angles when you’re reading. You can highlight passages, read in the dark and store thousands of books on one little device. Sometimes it feels like I have thousands of unread books on my Kindle. Because it’s so easy to download them, I buy a lot of books. Many of them I finish.
Wealth Management
MAY 16, 2025
In addition, Ceteras Avantax brings on a tax specialist advisory, and Raymond James adds two new practices from advisors previously at Edward Jones, Janney, and LPL.
Mullooly Asset Management
MAY 16, 2025
Should I Convert Everything To a Roth IRA Now? Highlights: 1. The idea of a “100% Roth retirement portfolio” as a “holy grail” lacks nuance; all-or-nothing approaches are rarely optimal for retirement planning. 2.
Advisor Perspectives
MAY 16, 2025
The yield on the 10-year note ended May 16, 2025 at 4.43%. Meanwhile, the 2-year note ended at 3.98% and the 30-year note ended at 4.89%.
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Where are top advisors focusing in 2025? AcquireUp’s 2025 Industry Index reveals it all. Based on insights from 200+ financial professionals nationwide, discover why 74% say seminars and referrals deliver the best ROI, how automation is helping advisors scale faster, and why only 8% are tapping into niche marketing (a major growth opportunity!). Whether you're refining your client acquisition strategy or scaling your practice, this report gives you the real-world data, benchmarks, and action ste
Random Roger's Retirement Planning
MAY 16, 2025
Before Justin Walters and Paul Hickey founded Bespoke Investment Group, they worked at Birinyi & Associates. This was around 2005 or 2006, something like that. They did a weekly survey of bloggers, bullish and bearish, I recall this starting very close to the start of the bear market associated with the Financial Crisis. Every week for more than a year I was bearish.
Validea
MAY 16, 2025
Technology dividend aristocrats are established tech companies that have consistently increased their dividend payments for at least 7 consecutive years, compared to the traditional 25-year requirement for S&P 500 dividend aristocrats. This modified timeframe acknowledges the technology sector’s historical emphasis on directing profits toward research, development, and growth initiatives rather than shareholder dividends.
Advisor Perspectives
MAY 16, 2025
In the latest report by the Census Bureau, housing starts inched up to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.361 million in April. This marks a 1.6% increase from March but a 1.7% decrease compared to one year ago.
Validea
MAY 16, 2025
Since 2003, Validea has tracked model portfolios inspired by legendary investors like Peter Lynch, Benjamin Graham, and Warren Buffett. These portfolios offer a rare and consistent lens through which to view the ups and downs of markets over the last two decades. In this retrospective, we examine how these strategies performed across major market events and what they teach us about resilience, timing, and the long arc of investing success.
Speaker: Claire Grosjean, Global Finance & Operations Executive
Finance teams are drowning in data—but is it actually helping them spend smarter? Without the right approach, excess spending, inefficiencies, and missed opportunities continue to drain profitability. While analytics offers powerful insights, financial intelligence requires more than just numbers—it takes the right blend of automation, strategy, and human expertise.
Advisor Perspectives
MAY 16, 2025
In the latest report by the Census Bureau, building permits dropped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.412 million in April, the lowest level in almost a year. This marks a 4.7% decrease from March and a 3.2% decline compared to one year ago.
Carson Wealth
MAY 16, 2025
In the latest Take 5, Ryan Detrick, Chief Market Strategist, and Sonu Varghese, VP, Global Macro Strategist, dig into the recent market rally and explore the possibility that the worst may be behind us. With tariffs rolled back and earnings season exceeding expectations, could the lows be in? They also unpack the Feds latest moves, inflation data, and what to expect next for markets and the economy.
Advisor Perspectives
MAY 16, 2025
If only Europe could offer property investors the kind of buffet the US provides. For now, its listed real estate sector is fragmented and dysfunctional, the raison d’etre seemingly to create cheap takeover targets for buyout firms.
Abnormal Returns
MAY 16, 2025
Listening YouTube is launching a weekly top podcast list. (cnbc.com) Are podcasts the future of sports journalism? (awfulannouncing.com) Finance Justin Carbonneau and Jack Forehand talk with Kai Wu of Sparkline Capital about his paper 'Investing Amid Trade Wars.' (youtube.com) Matt Zeigler talks options and more with Kris Abdelmessih. (epsilontheory.com) Bogumil Baranowski talks with Dave Nadig about who you can trust.
Speaker: David Worrell, CFO, Author & Speaker
Your financial statements hold powerful insights—but are you truly paying attention? Many finance professionals focus on the income statement while overlooking key signals hidden in the balance sheet and cash flow statement. Understanding these numbers can unlock smarter decision-making, uncover risks, and drive long-term success. Join David Worrell, accomplished CFO, finance expert, and author, for an engaging, nontraditional take on reading financial statements.
Advisor Perspectives
MAY 16, 2025
While the CPI has dipped close to the mythical 2 percent target, core CPI remains elevated.
Calculated Risk
MAY 16, 2025
Note: Mortgage rates are from MortgageNewsDaily.com and are for top tier scenarios. For deaths, I'm currently using 4 weeks ago for "now", since the most recent three weeks will be revised significantly. Note: " Effective May 1, 2024, hospitals are no longer required to report COVID-19 hospital admissions, hospital capacity, or hospital occupancy data. " So, I'm no longer tracking hospitalizations.
Advisor Perspectives
MAY 16, 2025
The 90-day reduction on tariffs between the US and China is a positive development, but some questions remain.
Calculated Risk
MAY 16, 2025
From BofA: We initiated our 2Q GDP tracking after the April retail sales print. It moved up two-tenth to 2.2% q/q saar from our official forecast of 2.0% q/q saar. Meanwhile, our 1Q GDP tracking moved up a tenth to -0.3% q/q saar since our last weekly publication [May 16th estimate] emphasis added From Goldman: We lowered our Q2 GDP tracking estimate by 0.1pp to +2.1% (quarter-over-quarter annualized) and our Q2 domestic final sales estimate by the same amount to +0.1%.
Speaker: Erroll Amacker
Automation is transforming finance but without strong financial oversight it can introduce more risk than reward. From missed discrepancies to strained vendor relationships, accounts payable automation needs a human touch to deliver lasting value. This session is your playbook to get automation right. We’ll explore how to balance speed with control, boost decision-making through human-machine collaboration, and unlock ROI with fewer errors, stronger fraud prevention, and smoother operations.
Advisor Perspectives
MAY 16, 2025
After a brief reprieve from all the recession talk while the Fed was raising rates to decades-old high watermarks, the ‘R’ word has come back into vogue once again post-Liberation day.
The Big Picture
MAY 16, 2025
My end-of-week morning train WFH reads: Consumers Prop Up the Economy. Theyre Showing Signs of Strain. The U.S. consumer has seemed unstoppable in recent years, spending throughout soaring inflation and the highest borrowing costs in decades. That resilience helped to keep at bay a recession that many thought inevitable after the pandemic. ( New York Times ) Walmart Becomes Biggest Retailer Yet to Pass Through Tariff Price Increases : Company plans to raise prices this month and early this sum
Advisor Perspectives
MAY 16, 2025
We maintain a focus on resiliency as elevated yields within high quality fixed income continue to offer attractive opportunities.
Advisor Perspectives
MAY 16, 2025
The S&P 500 posted gains every day this week, climbing 5.3% from last Friday.
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